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Let's say you're one of three teen-aged friends who have "borrowed" a gadget from your school for use in a research project. And due to an accident, you lose the gadget. Because it's Friday, you have a couple of days before the school learns its gadget is missing. What do you do? Well, you go and find it, right?

The problem is, this "gadget" is something called a "TimePeeper," and you've sent it back 75 years in time from your home in 2080, when time-travel is still a very experimental and dangerous activity. So finding it and getting it back before Monday is going to be a very neat trick, indeed.

Such is the premise of the graphic novel TimePeeper, an all-new story written by L. Neil Smith and illustrated by Sherard Jackson, to be published on-line by Big Head Press. The story will be serialized on the BigHeadPress.Com site starting in August 2007, with plans for a printed version in the summer of 2008 to be distributed in the comics direct-sales market and in the book trade market.

"Up until now, I've been the only artist associated with Smith's graphic novels," said Scott Bieser, who is also creative director for Big Head Press. "But Neil has many more great story ideas than I have time to draw, so I had to find another artist, and the right artist, to work with him. I looked at scores of different artists before I found Sherard, or rather, he found us, in response to a call for artists on Warren Ellis' "The ENGINE" web site."

L. Neil Smith is an award-winning science-fiction prose novelist, whose first book, The Probability Broach, is still in print after 28 years and was also adapted to graphic novel form with artist Scott Bieser and published by Big Head Press in 2004. Smith continues to write both prose novels and graphic novels. His other works include Pallas, Their Majesties' Bucketeers, Henry Martyn, Forge of the Elders, and The American Zone. He is currently writing a prose sequel to Pallas, and scripted the graphic novel Roswell, Texas which is currently being serialized on the BigHeadPress.Com site (http://www.bigheadpress.com/roswell).

Sherard Jackson began his illustration career in 1995 as one of the artists and co-founders of the indie comic book company, Noir Press, which published the anthology, "Section 8". During that time he began doing freelance illustration for other comics and role-playing game companies. He primarily contributed artwork for Palladium Books' "Rifts" and White Wolf's "Exalted" line of role-playing games. His creator owned comics work include the graphic novel "Semantic Lace" for Devil's Due and Image Comics, and "Assembly" for Antarctic Press. In 2004, he worked as an animator on "A Scanner Darkly", the adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel. He has also provided character design and animation for "Flatland: The Movie", an adaptation of the Edwin A. Abbott novel.

"Sharard's drawing style has a strong 'shonen manga' influence which I think will be very suitable for this story, which is essentially a teen adventure-comedy," Bieser said. "The three friends from 2080 have many of the same problems teen-agers today deal with, but the future technology they've grown up with give those problems a new dimension."

did the BATFE ever give a coherent explanation as to the reason for the raid?

When the ATF agents were getting training at Fort Bliss the reason given was that the Branch Davidians were making meth. Yet Koresh overthrew and killed his predecessor as leader of the cult for just that reason and beat the murder rap in Texas court. This never came up afterwards. Did ATF lie to the US Army? Especially to the Special Forces Operators who trained them? How do the Green Berets feel about being deceived into training people who abuse that training to make war against American citizens on false premises? Besides drug enforcement is DEA not ATF (as the agency was known at the time), and there was a shortage of DEA agents on the original raid.

The ATF justified its shock tactics on the grounds that Koresh and his followers were abusing the children at the ranch ( You know, the same kids they burned to death.). Last time I checked preventing child abuse was not part of ATF's brief. besides, the local sheriff and Texas' Child Protective Services, who do have that brief, said they had no valid complaints of abuse at Mt. Carmel.

Finally the ATF said they were there to investigate allegations that the Branch Davidian cultists were illegally manufacturing machine guns. Since the cult did in fact engage in repairing and selling guns and was licenced to do so ATF had every right to go in to inspect their facilities. However, this did not require a small army and a warrant or a paramilitary raid unless the ATF had earlier gone by to inspect the facilities and been forcibly denied access. I Have never heard, read, or seen video documentation of such a visit.

I've heard a couple of people from Waco imply that the World is better off with Koresh and his followers gone. Don't know, never had the pleasure of their company to say. I do know that the evidence is they were taken out unjustly. And since when is being a flake literally a Federal capital offense?